Whoever made up that cliché about two being company and three being a crowd clearly wasn’t a rapper. These days the notion of two emcees striking that perfect chemistry and sustaining it over the course of multiple albums seems about as realistic as masked men in capes who think they can save the universe. Here in the “real world” your favorite rap duo can easily be split up by personal beefs, over inflated egos, greed or prison just to name a few. All of which make the fact that Heltah Skeltah is back even more surprising.

Then again, Sean Price and Rockness Monstah have always made a habit of doing the unexpected. Despite his more mainstream leanings, it was Rock who spent the better part of a decade AWOL after his distaste for dealing with Priority Records landed him with DJ Lethal’s camp. During the same time, Ruck contemplated quitting rap altogether, only to flirt with the street pharmaceutical industry before returning to the rap game with a vengeance as a soloist. As a group their catalogue consists of only two bipolar albums, which sound nothing alike, but somehow are both loved by their fans.

Attempts to get Ruck and Rock together to discuss ending their 10-year hiatus with the release of D.I.R.T. (Da Incredible Rap Team) yield as many random twists as their respective career paths. The planned meeting is almost aborted due to a few iPhone issues, causing Rock to offer, “We could've texted the shit out of each other, 'cause that’s the only thing going through.” But once you hear them together, the chemistry from 1996 is recreated all over again. No wonder they’re donning capes and masks.

HipHopDX: Before we get into anything, what’s up with this album cover?
Sean Price: [Laughs] You know the name of the album is D.I.R.T., and we could’ve went with a dirty type of album cover. But, Redman had that on lock with Dare Iz A Darkside, which was excellent. Then on Muddy Waters, he was dirty as hell too. It was like, “What can you do after that?” Being that D.I.R.T. has two meanings and we just said, “Fuck it. That’s what we’re gonna be, Da Incredible Rap Team. We’re two super villains.”
Rockness Monstah: We’re the superhero rap avengers…Da Incredible Rap Team. This is what happens when you take an idea and push it as far as it can go.

DX: I’m guessing that was what happened back when most of us first saw you guys in the “Leflaur Leflah Eshkoshka” video with the Fab Five?
Rockness Monstah: You’ve got five niggas with raw chemistry who act silly. [We said:]

“Fuck it, we’re doing a video. Everybody line up.”

“Hold on, how did The Temptations do it?”

“Man, it wasn’t The Temptations. It was The Four Tops.”

“How is it going to be like The Four Tops when there’s five of us, stupid?”

DX: It seems like you guys always manage to have fun even if you’re rapping about stomping somebody out.
Rockness Monstah: You don’t have to overdo everything. We’re hardcore and we rap hardcore, but that’s only half of who we are. We don’t wake up at breakfast ice-grilling the Fruit Loops. Niggas got jokes, and we kid around and all of that stuff too. Niggas talk about keeping it real, but ask the hardest rapper out how many people he had to slap last year. There’s 365 days in a year, and if he slapped a lot of people last year, I guarantee it wasn’t any more than 15. What were you doing the rest of those days? So, without rhyming about me taking out the trash, eating dinner or shit like that, I can show that I’m a regular nigga through the videos.

DX: Are those two sides hard to balance?
Sean Price: No because that’s really me. If you really know me, you know I’m the same dude that will say that street shit—I really mean that and I’ll go there. At the same time, if you’re my peoples you’ll be like, “Yo, this nigga Ruck is a clown…always crackin’ mad jokes.” I try to bring that across when I rap. I’m hardbody, but at the same time, I’ve got a sense of humor.

DX: After seeing what happened with Rick Ross and Akon, do you think that type of honesty gives you two an advantage?
Sean Price: I don’t know. I’m just honest with what I do, but I don’t know if that has nothing to do with it. Everything that I say on my album ain’t true. I make up some stuff, and I think you’re allowed to do that. It’s called having an imagination. But, when I say things, nine times out of 10, I really mean it. I say it with the intent to really go there if I have to. You shouldn’t fabricate to the point where people are thinking, “Okay, you’re fronting.” I just try to keep it 100.

DX: Over 10 years after being released, there are still arguments about if Nocturnal or Magnum Force was the better of your two albums. Did you feel the need to cater to those two different fan bases?
Sean Price: Nah, we ain’t think of none of that shit. That’s too much thinking, man. That’s the problem with motherfuckers. They’re sitting around going, “Yo, what about the fans who only liked this album?” Fuck that shit. [Laughs]
Rockness Monstah: We just wanna cater to people who like niggas that rhyme good. We try to appease ourselves, because we pop a lot of shit. We believe in ourselves. If you ever ask me or my boy about our work, or you ask who we think is better than us, we’ll tell you nobody is. We were more focused on showing niggas that. Who’s better, or who’s the best consists of different things, and it’s determined by the people. But according to my standards, ain’t nobody fuckin’ with me and my boy. That’s what I wanted to show niggas. Continued on page 2 »